1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a stamper, a lithographic method using the stamper and a method of forming a structure by a lithographic pattern.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the conventional process for fabricating a semiconductor device, the photolithography has often been used as a technique for pattern transfer to form a finely detailed structure. With the miniaturization of the pattern, however, the pattern size is limited by the wavelength of the light used for exposure on the one hand and a mechanism is required for controlling the mask position with high accuracy on the other hand, thereby leading to the disadvantage of a high apparatus cost. A technique for forming a fine pattern at a low cost has been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,772,905. According to this technique, a stepped stamper having the same protrusions and recesses as the desired pattern to be formed on the substrate is pressed on a resist film layer formed on the surface of an object substrate thereby to transfer a predetermined pattern. This nano imprint technique described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,772,905 cited above is considered to make it possible to form a pattern as small as not more than 25 nanometers.
Even with the imprint technique considered to be capable of forming a fine pattern, however, a plurality of stamps of patterns are required to be prepared, as in photolithography, to form a structure configured of a plurality of patterns. Also, the positions of patterns are required to be matched with each other, thereby increasing the fabrication cost unavoidably.